


Long Way Around

by nerdyydragon



Series: Kingsman Tumblr Ficlets [56]
Category: Kingsman (2014), Kingsman (2015), Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Agent Eggsy, Demon Harry, Harry Hart is Dead, Harry is a Little Shit, M/M, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 06:55:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8701846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdyydragon/pseuds/nerdyydragon
Summary: Eggsy had faced many difficulties in his career as a Kingsman agent. Megalomaniacs bent on taking over the world and shaping it in their own image? Check. Dealing with rich twats who look down on him for his Estates upbringing? You got it. Strange smells permeating his flat? Done. A literal denizen of hell? Of c- wait, what?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer*

In the summer of 2015, Harry Hart went to South-Glade Mission Church in rural Kentucky, was shot in the head, and died on a tarmac under the scorching summer sun.

Eight months later, a pipe in Eggsy’s flat burst, and he had to stay with Roxy for a few days while it was being fixed. Merlin hadn’t liked the close quarters his agents shared, and had endeavoured to make sure either one or both of the young Kingsmen were out of country during that time. The pipe was fixed and Eggsy went home, JB finally calm at the prospect of settling into his own house again, everything back to normal after a short vacation whose turbulence seemed to make it stretch to a month.

Except.

That wasn’t how it had happened. Not at all.

Eggsy had returned from a mission in Prague one morning eight months after Harry’s death to find his whole house smelling faintly of sulphur, but try as he may he couldn’t locate the source. He thought nothing of it, and had bought a new central heating system (should the other one be faulty, which he assumed had been the case) and motion-activated air fresheners for every room, low enough to the ground that his small dog could trigger them. Gradually he became used to the smell, and life continued as normal.

Except when it didn’t.

JB could often be found in parts of the house he generally never ventured into, just staring at parts of the wall. No matter how many times Eggsy had laughed and picked the pug up in his arms to carry him from the room, he somehow managed to always find a way to do it again. He was never in the same spot twice in a row. Parts of the house were always cold, even rooms that hadn’t been before, and the space in front of the bay window in the living room was always freezing - or at least it was whenever Eggsy was there. JB’s barking (at nothing, or at most one of said cold spots) woke him up at night, and the dog’s bad habits as a result had turned off even his most persistent of…. guests. When the door to his ensuite slammed on its own accord - for though the window was open there was no breeze, not at this time of year, to alter the wind flow of the room - he had finally had enough.

“Merlin,” Eggsy had approached the Scot the following morning after a night spent in his home gym, since clearly he wouldn’t be getting any more sleep. “I think my house is haunted.” The bald quartermaster hadn’t laughed at him, or told him he was crazy. He simply raised a finger in a bid for his patience, and retrieved a book from one of the upper shelves of the massive bookcase occupying the entirety of the far wall. He handed him a slim black leather volume and sat back down in his chair.

“Don’t open it here. Wait until you get home. It should tell you everything you need.” He took a sip of his coffee and turned back to his monitor, eyes flicking one last time to the man in front of him. “Unless there was something else?” Eggsy shook his head.

“No, that was all.” He turned on his heel and made it almost to the door, then tucked the book into the inside pocket of his suit and turned around. “Thank you.” Then he left.

It seemed evening couldn’t come fast enough, and time appeared to move inconstantly. Hours worth of paperwork seemed to take him days to do; one report that he felt had taken him until lunch had only occupied forty five minutes of his time. The sulphur smell was lingering in his office, but focused as he was on his multitude of tasks Eggsy managed to ignore it. Every time he checked the clock he barely stopped his hand from reaching inside his breast pocket. What was inside that book was nagging at the back of his brain.

At long last, evening fell, and Eggsy packed up his things and headed for the train to the shop. Waiting on the platform was Gawaine, who upon noticing him tugged on his gloves and wrapped his scarf around his neck before sending him a small smile, which he returned.

“Just got a chill. Is it cold down here, or is it just me?” The cold that had been laced around him like a blanket for the last month suddenly descended, and Eggsy shivered, putting on his own coat in a vain attempt to fight it off.

“I suppose it is.” They spent the entire train ride home in silence, and parted ways outside the storefront with a polite wave before heading into different parts of the city. Eggsy tapped his hands against his knees in the back of the cab, silently urging it to go faster against the crawl of London traffic.

When Eggsy stepped inside his front door he knew that something was wrong. Or, not wrong perhaps, but abnormal. JB was sleeping soundly on his bed in the living room, curled up next to the roaring fireplace. The room itself was frigid, and when he bent down to scratch the sleeping pug behind the ear he noticed that the fire wasn’t giving off any heat, even though the logs themselves seem to be burning. Taking the leather book out from his jacket, Eggsy surveyed the pages themselves. They were old and careworn, the ink on them hand written and long dried. There were strange symbols written here and there, and though it was only two dozen or so pages Eggsy sat on the floor and read the whole thing from cover to cover eagerly. Understanding what Merlin had meant about not reading such material at the mansion, Eggsy began to reconcile what had been happening with the words the pages contained.

He closed the curtains on the bay window, and then setting the book aside moved all of his furniture until there was a large empty space in the middle of the room. Taking chalk from the cupboard (saved for visits from his mum and sister, which had been altered to his visiting them instead while this whole mess was happening) he copied out the inscription onto the floor as well as he could, then sat down outside of it and read the words written underneath it aloud, hoping for the best. When he finished, he set the book aside and closed his eyes.

“Listen, okay, I don’t know who you are or why you’re in my house - or maybe it was your house once, who knows - but I just want to ask you to stop. This whole thing is slowly killing me. I guess if you’re malignant, or whatever, then maybe that’s what you wanted, but I’m throwing it out there anyway since I really don’t think that’s what you’re trying to do.” He took a deep breath, the smell of sulphur stronger now and burned a path down his throat. “I just, want you to maybe leave me alone? Please?”

“Well I’m certainly not going to leave you alone, and trust me when I say that it’s quite the opposite of my intention to leave you dead.” Eggsy’s head snapped up at the voice, and toppled backwards from his seated position when he saw the figure standing in the middle of the ring. The man smiled, the edges of his black, iris-less eyes crinkling at the edges. He blinked, and they appeared normal, their colour a deep honey-brown. “Hello, darling.” Eggsy gaped for a moment before scrambling to his feet and standing with his toes on the edge of the line. He reached forward tentatively but then stopped himself, not wanting to cross the barrier just as strongly as he wanted to see if the man before him was truly real.

“Harry? But - how? You’re dead, I watched you die.” He smiled sadly.

“Yes, and I’m very sorry you had to see that. But when I died and saw Chester King standing at the right hand of the devil himself, I decided it wasn’t a place I wanted to be.” He chuckled, and then met Eggsy’s eyes earnestly. “If I’m being honest, I missed you sorely.” Eggsy started to lean forward, nearly entering the circle. Harry - or whatever appeared to be Harry - stepped back. “No, my darling, you can’t. I can’t, not with you, not as,” he looked down at himself and grimaced, “this.”

“Why not, Harry, I mean, you’re here? Aren’t you? You’re you.” Harry shook his head sadly.

“Not quite. There are things about me now that wouldn’t be - wouldn’t be good for you. If I wasn’t worth your time before, Eggsy, then you should run as far as you can from me now. I am, by literally all counts, no longer the man I once was.” Eggsy squared his shoulders and blinked twice, nails biting into the skin of his palms, trying desperately not to cry.

“I don’t believe it. I can’t believe it. I refuse to.” He said quietly. Then, careful not to break the chalk line he had drawn on the floor, Eggsy stepped into the circle and toe to toe with the man inside of it. “You’re in there, somewhere. And I’ll find you, even if it kills me.” Harry turned slightly and ran a hand down his face, his eyes once again black.

“Eggsy, don’t. Don’t say things like that, not if you don’t mean them. You don’t understand what you’re dealing with. I wouldn’t have infringed upon your feelings in anything other than friendship while I was alive, with no regard for my own romanticisms. Now that I’m,” Harry took a breath to steady himself. “I’m dead, it is doubly so.” Eggsy looked up at him and leaned slightly into his space.

“Those romanticisms, Harry. They still exist? Because you’re not exactly short of a willing partner here.” Harry looked at the man before him, the light from the fire playing off his face and darkening the hollow of his collarbone. He closed his eyes and swallowed. Eggsy took it as the yes was, knowing Harry as he did. The man before him didn’t rebuff an idea so halfheartedly unless he didn’t believe in the possibility.

Not enough so that it could even be called a kiss, Eggsy stood up on the balls of his feet and gently pressed his mouth against Harry’s. Harry leaned into it, one hand coming up to rest on the side of Eggsy’s face as he took control of the kiss.

Next to them, the doors of the fireplace banged open, and the fire continued to rage inside it’s now-imaginary barrier. JB didn’t seem to care.


End file.
